A picture of the head of the al-Qaeda terror network, Osama bin Laden. The United States faces growing threats on multiple fronts with Al-Qaeda still the top danger, but Iran on the rise and on course to produce nuclear weapons early in the next decade, US intelligence chiefs said Tuesday. [AFP] Osama bin Laden, if he's alive, celebrated his 50th birthday on Saturday, and his friends in the Taliban prayed for his long life. The al Qaeda leader's long silence since the September 11, 2001 attacks has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died, though many in the international intelligence community reckon Islamist militant Web sites would circulate word of his death. "He is alive. I am 100 percent sure," Taliban spokesman Mullah Hayatullah Khan told reporters, adding that senior leaders were in touch with bin Laden. Khan said special prayers were offered by Taliban fighters in camps in Afghanistan to mark bin Laden's birth on March 10, 1957, in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. "We prayed that Allah may give him 200 years to live," Khan said. "And we offered collective and long prayers for him because he is a great mujahid (holy warrior)." The most recent videotape of bin Laden was released in late 2004. But a long silence since then has fuelled rumours that bin Laden is unwell, or dead, though the United States fears that the al Qaeda network he founded is rebuilding its base in Pakistani tribal lands, and has forged ties with affiliates in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Dead or alive, bin Laden is revered by some as the symbolic leader of a global jihad, or holy war, against the United States, following the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed more than 3,000 people. 點擊查看更多雙語新聞 (AP)

如果奧薩馬·本·拉登還活著的話，他已于上周六年滿50周歲。當天，他在塔利班組織中的朋友們為他祈禱，祝愿他長命百歲。 這位基地組織領導人自9·11之后一直“銷聲匿跡”，因此很多人猜測這位世界上最"有價值"的逃犯可能已經不在人世，但國際情報組織的很多人則認為如果拉登已經死亡，伊斯蘭軍事網站上會發布這個消息。 塔利班組織發言人毛拉·哈亞圖拉·可汗接受記者采訪時說：“我可以百分之百的肯定，他還活著。”據他透露，塔利班的高級領導人們一直與拉登保持著聯系。 可汗說，本·拉登于1957年3月10日出生于沙特阿拉伯的城市吉達，為了慶祝他50周歲生日，塔利班組織的成員們在地處阿富汗的軍營為他舉行了特殊的祈禱。 可汗說：“我們向真主阿拉祈禱，賜予他200年的生命。” “我們為他集體祈禱了很久，因為他是一名偉大的圣戰勇士。” 本·拉登最近一次在錄像中露面是在2004年底。 但從那之后，他一直未露面，由此引起了有關他身患重病和死亡的謠言。但美國仍然擔心拉登建立的基地組織網絡會在巴基斯坦的部落地區重建恐怖訓練基地，而且擔心其已進一步加強了與歐洲、北非和中東地區成員的聯系。 無論拉登如今是生還是死，自從9·11恐怖襲擊之后，他就被一些人尊為全球圣戰的精神領袖。2001年9月11日，他對美國的紐約和華盛頓發動的恐怖襲擊造成了3000多人死亡。 （ 英語點津姍姍編輯）